The head of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command yesterday became the first casualty of the damning new report into the Stephen Lawrence case.

Commander Richard Walton was ‘temporarily moved’ from his post as head of SO15 to a non-operational role following the Ellison review.

He was also referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which will assess whether it should launch a full inquiry into his conduct.

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Reaction: Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has spoken of his devastation at hearing the findings of the Ellison Review, while Richard Walton (right), the Met's counter-terrorism chief, has been moved from his post

Outraged: Baroness Lawrence (left), mother of murdered Stephen, has said that 'heads should roll' at the Metropolitan Police, according to her solicitor, Imran Khan (right)

Murdered: Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death by a group of up to six white youths in an unprovoked racist attack as he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, South-East London, with a friend on April 22, 1993

In memory: The Stephen Lawrence Memorial on Well Hall Road in Eltham, south London

Mr Walton had faced an uncertain
future since the report by Mark Ellison QC revealed how he had met the
police spy who had infiltrated an activist group close to the Lawrence
family campaign as a junior detective.

The
contact between him and the undercover officer N81 was damned as
‘inappropriate and wrong-headed‘ by the Ellison report and the catalyst
for Theresa May’s decision to order a public inquiry into undercover
policing.

The decision to
move him was announced hours after Doreen Lawrence’s lawyer demanded to
know why no police officers have ever brought to account over the
Stephen Lawrence scandal.

Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Paul Condon denied knowledge of any undercover operations that targeted the Lawrence family

Stunned: Neville Lawrence told the Mail the findings of the Ellison Review were 'shocking'

Convicted: Gary Dobson (left) and David Norris, who were jailed for the racist murder of Stephen

UNDERCOVER POLICING TO BE DISCUSSED

Undercover policing will be discussed at a debate organised by the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, which campaigns for equality and supports young people.

Keynote speaker will be Michael Mansfield QC, who represents the Lawrence family.

Labour justice spokesman Sadiq Khan MP and the Lawrence family solicitor Imran Khan will also take part in the event, sponsored by the Daily Mail, at TUC Congress House in Great Russell Street, London on March 25. For full details see www.stephenlawrence.org.uk.

Imran Khan, who has represented Baroness
Lawrence since 1993, said no one had been punished.

He
spoke out as the National Crime Agency began an investigation into
former Met detective John Davidson, who was accused by the Ellison
report of having a corrupt relationship with gangster Clifford Norris,
the father of one of Stephen’s killers.

He said: ‘Officers who were involved in the initial failed
investigation, which was labelled “institutionally racist”, all senior
officers either resigned, one officer, a Detective Inspector Bullock as
he was at the time, was taken before a disciplinary committee but
nothing in effect happened to him.

STEPHEN LAWRENCE CASE: TIMELINE OF EVENTS

April 22, 1993 Stephen Lawrence stabbed to death in south-east London.

April 23 1993 Suspects put under surveillance after the names of the murderers were written down in a note left in a phone box.

May 1993 Lawrence family become frustrated at lack of progress in case.

May to July 1993 Brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, David Norris, Gary Dobson and Luke Knight are arrested with Acourt and Knight picked out by Stephen's friend Duwayne Brooks, who was with him when he was murdered. They deny the charges and in July 1993 the case against them is dropped, with Brooks' evidence deemed unreliable.

February 1997 Daily Mail front page published with the suspects pictured and named under the headline 'MURDERERS'.

July 1997 Macpherson public inquiry is launched and finds Met 'institutionally racist'

July 1998 Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon apologies to the Lawrence family for 'failings'.

July 2006 Metropolitan Police reviews its evidence following BBC documentary on the case.

November 2011 Trial of Gary Dobson and David Norris begins.

January 2012 Dobson and Norris are found guilty of murder.

March 2014 Ellison report suggests one of the officers in the original investigation was corrupt.

‘So
despite all the stories that we’ve heard, all the evidence that we’ve
seen and now this [the Ellison] report, not a single officer has been
held to account for any of their failings either in relation to
institutional racism and now institutional corruption and this goes to
the highest level.’

Mr Khan
said it was important to establish who had ordered undercover officers
from the Yard’s Special Demonstration Squad to gather information on the
Lawrence family.

He said: ‘If these officers from the SDS were all
junior officers, undercover officers… were doing the things that they
were tasked to do, the question then arises, well who told them to do
that, why was that done and how high up did this go in terms of the
information, how was it used?’

His
comments heaped pressure on former Met chief Lord Condon, who yesterday
issued a statement denying he had ordered – or even had knowledge of –
the spying operation in the late 1990s.

‘What
we want to now have is evidence, so that that evidence can now be
presented either in the criminal court or in a tribunal... and those
officers either rooted out or to face, as Doreen wants, criminal
prosecution and... those officers at senior level who made mistakes or
otherwise acted improperly, for their heads to roll.’

Mr Walton was an acting detective inspector 16 years ago when he met the police spy to enable him to brief Lord Condon.

The
timing was crucial. The Macpherson inquiry into Stephen’s murder was
preparing to hear final submissions from interested parties – in
particular the Met.

Mr
Walton was part of the Met team set up to assess its response to the
inquiry hearings, which had inflicted serious damage on the force’s
image and reputation.

Mr
Walton said yesterday: ‘I welcome any scrutiny of my role in these
events over more than 16 years ago, including in the forthcoming public
inquiry.’

In 1999, the Mail
revealed that not a single police officer would be disciplined over the
botched investigation into Stephen’s murder.

The newspaper named five
senior officers who had made crucial mistakes yet escaped serious
sanction.

NOW LET WHISTLEBLOWERS TALK TO PRESS

Strict rules to prevent police whistleblowers from speaking to journalists should be reconsidered in light of the Stephen Lawrence report, MPs said last night.

Lord Justice Leveson used his controversial report into media ethics to call for a clampdown on Press-police relations, with records kept of all meetings.

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture select committee said he was concerned the rules were too stringent and would deter legitimate journalism. There are also fears that scandals would remain secret because officers would not be able to go to the Press to expose them.

Confirmation that police spied on the Lawrence family came only because a former undercover officer went to the media. Calling for a rethink, Mr Whittingdale said: ‘The Leveson recommendations were around the kind of corruption which has been exposed and has led to criminal charges, when the police may have been paid for information.

‘But what one wants to ensure is that these measures do not stop legitimate journalistic investigations to expose the kind of practice horrifically revealed in the case of Stephen Lawrence.’